Hillary win would be catastrophe: Letter

For conservatives and Republicans, a win by Hillary Clinton in November would be a catastrophe — and not just because people like Miley Cyrus and Al Sharpton would not leave the country.

It would mean continued assaults on the 1st and 2nd Amendments, especially the latter. Higher taxes and more welfare. More war — her defense secretary-in-waiting, Michelle Flournoy, has openly said as much. It would mean her appointment of at least one justice to the US Supreme Court, and perhaps as many as four (depending on the ages of the justices and the number of terms she serves), creating a liberal block of five to seven justices that will put its stamp on the country for a generation.

So why are so many Republican leaders doing all they can do to diminish Trump and give the election to Clinton? Sure, Trump's style is often abrasive, and he is a bully, and he made fools of the Republican establishment by trashing their best efforts to defeat him.

But all of that has happened before, and the party's leadership — ANY party — have rallied around their chosen candidate, if only by asserting that the other side is worse. So none of the above ought to make so many of the Republican Party's "leaders" act like lemmings running around in search of a cliff, jeopardizing everything their party has stood for by enhancing Clinton's prospects.

In reality, there is one unspoken issue that sets Trump apart from Hillary Clinton, and in opposition to all of the other Republican candidates at the start of the primary season — and, oddly enough, aligns him with Bernie Sanders. This is that he cannot be counted on to go to war with Iran as soon as possible, which is what Israel wants and what its lobby in the US — AIPAC (American Israel Political Action Committee, the self-described owner of Capitol Hill) uses as the litmus test for the legitimacy of a candidate. Hillary Clinton will attack Iran; Donald Trump probably will not; and thus in obedience to that reality, many in the Republican establishment throw their core interests to the wind and in effect serve Hillary Clinton.

When the smoke clears, perhaps the Republican Party (or whatever remains of it) will replace the elephant with the lemming as the party symbol. I'm just not sure either deserves that fate.